Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Serb leader lays claim to Kosovo

By Nicholas Wood International Herald TribuneWEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2006GRACANICA, Kosovo The prime minister of Serbia made a symbolic visit Wednesday to this town in the province of Kosovo, asserting Serbia's historic and religious claims to the region.

Vojislav Kostunica picked July 28, which Serbs regard as the most important date in their history. It commemorates the 14th-century defeat of the mainly Christian army in Kosovo by Ottoman Turks.

In Gracanica, "there is no better place to repeat what every Serb has to know," the prime minister told of hundreds of Serbs gathered on the grounds of the 14th-century monastery in the center of the village. "Kosovo has been and will always remain part of Serbia."

His foray into the United Nations-administered region was the latest attempt to head off what the government in Belgrade sees as the province's increasing momentum to becoming a separate state. That has long been the goal of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

Serbian and Albanian negotiators have made little progress on the topic in meetings in Vienna over the past six months. But Western diplomats here said independence would probably be granted by the UN Security Council by the end of the year, most probably in an imposed settlement.

The Serbian government has made no indication that it is ready to accept or even acknowledge such an agreement and senior UN officials in Kosovo appear worried about how the settlement will play out.

Kostunica met with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain in London on Tuesday and warned that Serbia might break its ties with the West unless the international community took a more conciliatory approach to its claims to Kosovo and to Serbia's failure to arrest the war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, a former Serb general. The European Union cut off negotiations on Serbian membership in the bloc in May over the failure to detain Mladic.

Seventeen years ago, when he was president, Slobodan Milosevic used the same occasion to promote Serbian nationalism when he addressed a million Serbs gathered at the presumed site of the battlefield and gave a similar message, one that ultimately led to the break-up of Yugoslavia and the loss of tens of thousands of lives.

This time the anniversary was a low- key affair. With members of Serbia's Orthodox Church, Kostunica attended a ceremony in which Serbian mothers of four or more children were given gold and silver medals, an attempt to encourage the Serbian birth rate in the province, which lags behind that of the Albanians. The visit was his second since he came to office two-and-a-half years ago.

Sounding a conciliatory note, Kostunica told the crowd in Gracanica that Serbia wanted to reach a "compromise" over Kosovo's future, but made no mention of what that might entail.

Serbs, he said, want "justice, rights and peace, want to talk, want to make an arrangement, want to make a compromise and to make the right solution historically for Kosovo."

Although officially a part of Serbia, Kosovo has been controlled by the United Nations since June 1999, when Yugoslav troops accused of committing widespread atrocities were forced to withdraw after NATO-led bombing.

From 1998 to 1999 an estimated 10,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanian civilians, were killed as the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Army and the Serbian police cracked down on an insurgency led by ethnic Albanians.

While the day's visit passed without any significant reaction from ethnic Albanian leaders, international officials working here said they were alarmed that Serbian officials were toughening their stance over the province's future.

Senior UN officials say the government is trying to play up ethnic tensions to undermine the Albanian-led government's drive for independence.

In a recent interview, the departing head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen, warned that Belgrade's policies were compounding already hostile relations between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

He said leading Serbian politicians were playing up safety worries, in ways that could prompt Serbs to leave the province.

"The Kosovo Serbs are constantly hearing statements from Belgrade that would give them every reason to fear for their future," said Jessen-Petersen, who is to leave his post Friday.

"We have had some statements by leading politicians saying it is clear that Serbs here have a choice between death or exodus," he said. "They are not the kinds of statements that you make if you want the Serbs to stay here."

16 comments:

"In Gracanica, "there is no better place to repeat what every Serb has to know," the prime minister told of hundreds of Serbs "

And then he lied to them telling them that Kosova will be Serb land. Amazing; it just never stops. Poor KSerbs, every now and then a leader who could care less for them makes a pilgimage to the same spot and tells them the same b/s. Ignorance is bliss-look where a promise from 17 years ago got them.

Just to add to the punch line, than this happend:"Kostunica attended a ceremony in which Serbian mothers of four or more children were given gold and silver medals, an attempt to encourage the Serbian birth rate in the province,"Now that is something else-most sebs on this blog and elswhere complain about Albanian birth rates, yet when they do it; medals to everyone-you think it is the olympics. What a joke promoting high birth rate has been a long policy of expansion for serbia but that never worked, considering that serbs always chose to have a higher standard of living with fewer kids to worry about. It really shows how little the serb mentality has changed over the years...

Petersen makes some good points. Belgrade is not interested in co-existence and would willingly sacrifice K-Serbs for territory. I'm just surprised that K-Serbs are not awake yet.

Also, is Kostunica threatening Blair with self-isolation in case Serbia doesn't get its way? Threatening self-harm to hurt Britain!?

Anyc, discrimination in medals shows that he is not thinking of equality. If he considers himself PM of all citizens of Kosova, then let him give medals to Albanians mothers as well, and possibly introduce a platinum 10+ category.

You have made a flaw in your own argument. Since North Kosovo cant vote from independence because they are a minority of Kosovo I guess Kosovo cant vote for their independence because they are the minority within Serbia.

Yes, if we look at the country as a whole. But if I remember, Kosovo/a is an entity that merged with serbia the last century, then became a province with equal rights as any republic in the federation--that does mean that the region had equal rights as the republic of serbia--so they were EQUALS. Then Milo decided to strip its equality and all goverment branches of power away (autonomy).

1. The condition or quality of being autonomous; independence. 2. 1. Self-government or the right of self-government; self-determination. 2. Self-government with respect to local or internal affairs: granted autonomy to a national minority. 3. A self-governing state, community, or group.

So in reality even though serbs do outnumber albanians at the moment, the region of Kosovo/a was an independent province prior to Milo changing the constitution and the charter laws of Kosovo/a to suit his personal goals.

I suggest you brush up on your history a tiny bit.

Maybe you should read the treaty of berlin in its entirety. And see how the kingdom of serbia showed the demographics of the area to convince the Great Nations of who was who in the region and how russia played a large role in granting their (you) slavic brothers the territory of Kosovo/a. When in reality the demographics were not a true picture of the region and its peoples. And the policy of the Kingdom of serbia to regional territorial expansion with the aid of orthodox greece with the help of mother russia. You should look those up before passing judgement.

Funny because your people still bitch that Kosovo was independent in Yugoslavia... so it should have been 7:0?

Actually since your going that route then it should of been 8:0! you forgot vojvodina!

But this will never happen bc there is no S&M! Nonetheless it was the worst defeat in the worldcup history books.

They should of let Tadic come to the church to celebrate this religious holiday. He is less bitter then the misreable Kastunica. All his promisses were not broken as Mr. kastunica. He seems to have bad luck with everyone, especially with his own ideology of things on the subject of his country! Making promises that he CAN NOT KEEP!

At least Tadic is open minded and has more respect towards others and has earned a lot more respect then Kastunica in serbia and elsewhere.

Kastunica should throw in the towel for his political career seems to be going down the drain. He's a mirror image of John Kerry! One day he says yes and the next day he says no on subjects that are important to the ppl he addresses.

Oh I wish that Djindic was alive! For at least he had balls to stand up on his own two feet!

He probably would've had a solution much quicker and could of helped his own ppl, not like the current regime that seems to be running in circles trying to put as many monkey wrenches to keep their seats in the govt. at the ppl's expense.

"It would be against international law for the UN to amputate Kosovo from Serbia."

It would huh? I already told you- you got Kosova as a gift many years ago from world powers- you decided to anahilate the population there- so now it is time for world powers to take it away from you. Deal with it....

Kristian- forget arguing this point with them-serbs make a claim that kosova was equal to all the republics and albanians were free to chose anything they wanted- yet when they chose independence they claim that they have no right to do so as they are part of serbia.

So which one is it serbs:

Was Kosova a free entity in Yugoslavia to determine its choice ORare you the ones who decided Albanian fate for decades?!!

Haevent you noticed that Kosovo was never an independant country, but it was always part of Serbia. Kosovo and Metohija had a special status under the Ottoman rule, because you siptars massivly converted to islam, so you could get the tax benefits. But even then, you did not compose more than 30%of the Kosovo population. This was actually the poll from the Ottoman count, and using your arguments there were christian albanains, they specifically categorized you as albanians, there were no assumptions.

After the revolution, Kosovo was Serbian territory , until Nazi occupied Serbia. And ofcourse, siptars again joined with the Serbian occupants, and Nazi Germany Kosovo became part of Great Albania. And this is the point that Kristian is trying constantly to put out, that Kosovo was independant republic. Ofcourse it was an independant republic in Nazi Germany, they could have made Vozdovac an albanian republic if they pleased, the same way US is dividing territory of IRaq. But the reality is , even then you did not compose a majority of the population in Kosovo and Metohija. Your exapnsion began after the second world war, when Tito opened broders to albania. There was a mass movemenet of albanians towards Kosovo. I heard arguments that it is impossible, but I saw the albanian movement with my own eyes. In Greece, prior to 96 there were no albanians in Athens. In 96 Greek government gave 400 thousand work permits to albanians. Nobody knows why, it was just ordered. Now according to the latest poll, there are more than one million albanians in Greece!! Athens is flooded from albanians.

I know this my hurt, but you are imiggrants to Kosovo and Metohija, who drew out the local Serbian inhabitants. You ar elike turks to Germany, except that Germany did not allow turks to concentrate in one region. We should have been more careful, but then again how can you be more careful when you were ruled by the government that did not work in Serbian interest for 50 years.

you are taking away Kosovo, and I guess you won that batle, but the idea of you claiming that we occpied your land, makes me really wanna laugh.

ivan- you have become delusional. Your comments are the worse constructed propaganda I have seen so far-and it is quite obvious. If you claim that Albanians are immigrants in Kosova then why would Cubrilovic write the following:

"Serbia began to slice off pieces of this Albanian wedge as early as the first uprising, by expelling the northernmost Albanians from Jagodina. Thanks to the wide-ranging national plans of Jovan Ristic, Serbia sliced off another piece of this wedge with the annexation of Toplica and Kosanica. At that time, the regions between Jastrebac and southern Morava were radically cleared of Albanians. From 1918 onwards, it was the task of our present state to suppress what remained of the Albanian triangle"

IF you need an explanation for this, than you have bigger mental issues, but to be sure I will anyway explain it to you: Albanians have been up to Jagodina until your state expelled them-READ IT AGAIN -so much for your immigration from Albania theory.